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Aside from the primary topic of this article, it is worth noting this
week while the Earth Summit meets in S. Africa that the Bush=Cheney
administration is using a lot of political capital to maintain its’ unilateralist
environmental positions. Increasingly,
the environment is the future, and as long as the Old Guard now in power
refuses to accept that, they will continue to misuse and undermine American’s
interests in global political goodwill.
– Karen Watters Cole Powell's Awkward
Position
@ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9385-2002Aug28.html By Mary McGrory
Thursday, August 29, 2002; Page A31 Secretary of State
Colin Powell goes to South Africa next week to represent the president at a
global warming parley, which is being heavily attended by world leaders. Powell's position is awkward because
his leader does not believe in global warming. Powell's brief tour of other African nations might present
other awkward moments, particularly if the talk turns to human rights. President Bush doesn't seem to believe
in them, either -- at least not when big oil is involved. A State Department
ruling this month sent a shudder through the human rights community. Legal counsel William H. Taft IV asked
U.S. District Judge Louis Oberdorfer to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Exxon Mobil
of terrorizing Indonesian villagers who somehow thwart the world's biggest oil
company. The suit, brought by the
International Labor Rights Fund, cited murder, torture and rape. Taft didn't mince
words or priorities. If Exxon
Mobil was driven away from the wells by protesting peasants, the Chinese might
move in and make the millions.
And, Taft warned, the lawsuit could impede the war against terrorism.
Indonesia and its bloodthirsty military are our allies in that struggle.
Sensitive souls in the central government in Jakarta, some of them engineers of
the copiously documented savageries of the war against East Timor, would be
upset, and their efforts against al Qaeda could be curtailed "in response
to perceived disrespect for its sovereign interests." Taft
acknowledged that the human rights record of the Indonesian army was
"poor" -- the State Department's annual human rights report said so
-- but still the question was a distant third to the bottom line, terrorism and
international business competition. |
